Track & Field Headline

Saturday June 13, 2009Track and Field Teams Post Top-10 NCAA Finishes

The
University of Florida men’s and women’s track and field teams on Saturday each
posted top-10 team finishes for the first time since 2005 to cap off an
impressive season at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships hosted by the
University of Arkansas at its John McDonnell Field.

Texas
A&M took home both the 2009 NCAA men’s and women’s national championships.
The Aggie men won the NCAA Championship with 48 total team points, while Florida, Florida State and Oregon all tied for second with 46 points. LSU rounded out the
top five with 37 points. The TAMU women claimed the national title with 50
total points, while Oregon was second with 43 points and Arizona State third with 41. The Gators were ninth overall with 23 points.

In total,
Florida earned 22 United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches
Association All-America distinctions on the weekend, besting last year’s total
of 21 All-America honors.

“Give
credit to Texas A&M – their staff did a great job of getting their athletes
prepared for the NCAA Championships,” Florida head coach Mike Holloway said.
“I am very pleased with a number of things that our team was able to accomplish
this weekend. Obviously, it’s a little disappointing for the men to finish
second and to have had some opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of.

“I am
very pleased with the effort that everyone showed on the men’s and women’s
sides. I am thankful to have such a great coaching staff that did a wonderful
job working with our athletes all season long. This was a little bit of a tough
one today, but we’re just going to get back at it and continue to fight for
championships.”

The runner-up
finish for the Florida men gives the Gators second-place finishes at both the
2009 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. The University of Florida athletics program (all sports combined) finishes the year with 12 top-10 team finishes,
matching the school record. UF also had 12 top-10 team finishes in 2007-08,
2003-04 and 2001-02.

The Gator
men entered the meet ranked No. 3 in the nation, while the women entered the
meet ranked No. 14 in the latest USTFCCCA poll.

Florida’s men were five points off the
team lead heading into the final event – the 4x400-meter relay. The relay was
run at a blazing pace with the event’s winner clocking an impressive time of
2:59.99. The Gators recorded a season-best time of 3:02.17 – the fourth-fastest
outdoor 4x400-meter relay time in school history and the fastest since the 2005
season to finish fourth. The relay quartet consisted of R.J. Anderson (Big
Pine Key, Fla.), Lamarr Davis (Knightdale, N.C.), Carlos Phillips (Winter Park, Fla.) and Calvin Smith (Lutz, Fla.).

Smith, the
2009 USTFCCCA South Region Men’s Outdoor Runner of the Year and the 2009
Southeastern Conference Men’s Outdoor Runner of the Year, turned in a
third-place finish in the finals of the men’s 400-meter dash in a time of
45.29, giving him three All-America honors for the weekend.

The three
All-America honors this week give Smith 13 All-America honors for his career,
which moves him into second place all-time in men’s school history. Mike
Morrison holds the men’s school record for All-America honors with 14.

Freshman
jumper Christian Taylor (Fayetteville, Ga.) posted a career-best leap of
55-5.76/16.91m in the finals of the men’s triple jump to place third and earn
All-America honors. That topped his previous best of 53-5.50/16.29m, recorded at
the NCAA East Regional two weeks ago in Greensboro, N.C.

Freshman
hurdler William Wynne (Marietta, Ga.) finished third in the finals of
the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 13.68, while teammate Kallinka Pitt (Largo, Fla.) was seventh in 13.88. Each earned All-America honors in that event.

Junior
jumper Shara Proctor (The Valley, Anguilla), after earning All-America
honors in the women’s long jump earlier in the week, finished fourth in the
finals of the women’s triple jump with a leap of 44-11/13.69m for her second
All-America honor of the meet.

The
Gators concluded a highly impressive 2009 season that included an NCAA Indoor
runner-up finish for the men, an SEC Outdoor Championship for the women, an
NCAA East Regional championship for the men and top-10 finishes for both the
men’s and women’s programs at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.